On a repeat “NCIS” (7 p.m., CBS) from last May, a hero medic becomes a murder suspect after the corpse of a female sailor is found in a storage locker.

In its own quiet way, “NCIS” has become one of Tuesday night’s most popular dramas, helping CBS dominate the night that once belonged to “Frasier” and “Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit.” According to the network, the military drama’s audience has increased nearly 15 percent since last summer, and has averaged 9.42 million viewers per week during the summer rerun season.

It’s interesting to note that “NCIS” has retained such a strong following while shows like “Desperate Housewives,” with so much critical buzz, have seen the audience for repeats decline dramatically. For the week ending July 31, “NCIS” was the sixth most popular show with roughly 9 million viewers, while “Housewives” tumbled to the No. 45 show with an audience of just over 5 million. One could argue that the fans of “Housewives” have already seen the show and that viewers who did not catch “NCIS” during the regular season are now sampling the series. But shows that stay strong during the summer months tend to become even more popular when their new seasons commence. This pattern unfolded for the CBS drama “Without a Trace”: after a strong summer, it overtook “ER” and has not looked back.

The third season of “NCIS” kicks off on Tuesday, Sept. 20. Look for “Picket Fences” and “Chicago Hope” star Lauren Holly to join the cast as a new director who shares a romantic past with Special Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon). Actress Cote de Pablo will also join “NCIS” as an Israeli counterterrorism expert who crosses paths with Gibbs on the murder investigation of agent Kate Todd. De Pablo was last seen on CBS in the Richard Dreyfuss campus drama “The Education of Max Bickford.”

Other highlights

¢ Professional tennis from the U.S. Open in Flushing, N.Y. (6 p.m., USA).

¢ A Holocaust survivor worries about his sons’ embrace of an insular religious orthodoxy in the documentary “Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust” on “P.O.V.” (9 p.m., PBS).

¢ Eileen Collins and Richard Lewis appear on “Late Show with David Letterman” (10:35 p.m., CBS).

¢ Jay Leno is host to Johnny Depp, Eva Mendes and Shout Out Loud on “The Tonight Show” (10:35 p.m., NBC).